1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printer to cope with a problem with the occurrence of flaws on paper due to the dust or the like retained at a peeling position or a problem with non-uniform printing due to wrinkles occurring with an ink ribbon.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a thermal transfer printer employing an ink ribbon, the ink ribbon and paper are sandwiched between a thermal head and a platen roller, a heat is imparted to the ink ribbon by means of the thermal head, and dyestuff of the ink ribbon is transferred to paper. The ink ribbon needs to be peeled and taken up after printing. Therefore, a peeling member is disposed downstream of a printing position, so that the ink ribbon is guided in a direction departing from the paper, as disclosed in JP-A 2002-144614 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 1).
In the Patent Document 1, a peeling plate is employed as a peeling member. This peeling plate is formed in a curved shape such that a site positioned at the downstream side of a paper-feeding direction, of a contact portion coming into contact with the ink ribbon, becomes the most protuberant at a center part in the widthwise direction of the ink ribbon. In this manner, the center part in the widthwise direction of the ink ribbon, of a peeling portion between the ink ribbon and the paper, is first peeled off from the paper, and the sites positioned at both ends in the widthwise direction of the ink ribbon are then peeled off from the paper. A first peeling force acting upon the peeling portion between the ink ribbon and the paper is thereby reduced, so that the ink ribbon can be peeled off from the paper without damaging the paper.